Public rights of way are paths and tracks through countryside and sometimes residential areas where people can walk, cycle and ride horses.

But club president John Hodgson today said the club would be re-opening the path after receiving a letter from Bradford Council stating the path was a public right of way.

The committee was advised by the authority's solicitor that to qualify as a public right of way a path must have been used for more than 20 years ‘without force, without secrecy and without permission’.